Siege of Shkodra 1912-1913

[malioni91]

Hello everybody,
I saw that the forum doesn't have a dedicated topic on the Siege of Shkodra during the Balkan Wars and I thought to start one. Anyone is invited to share their thoughts and/or possible pictures that they might have.

Regards,

[malioni91]

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[Peter H]

Hi
Great pics!
Can you please give a source for them too?

/Peter

[Peter H]

Erickson in Defeat in Detail page 311 says in late March 1913 that 40,000 Serbs and Montenegrins were besieging Iskorda.The Turkish garrison was around 12,500 men.This included 6 battalions of the 18th Infantry Divsion?

The death of Hasan Riza,pictured above,is also mentioned on page 306:

Perhaps the most serious breach of the cease-fire happened very close to the end of the first armistice on January 30 1913...Riza went out to personally conduct discussions with Albanian,Muslim and Catholic religious leaders.By the time he returned(6.45PM),it was past nightfall and extremely dark.On the way back to the Corps headquarters,the colonel and his aide had scarcely travelled 150 metres along the road when three men approached them.Shots rang out from the men,whose identity was unknown,and Hasan Riza fell,mortally wounded.He was taken back to a nearby mosque,where he died at 2am on January 31...Esat Pasa now took over as the Iskorda commander.

Erickson also footnotes page 315:

Hall in The Balkan Wars 1912-1913 London 2000,noted that Hasan Riza was assassinated,apparently by agents of Esat Pasa who aspired to his position.

[malioni91]

Hi
Great pics!
Can you please give a source for them too?

/Peter

So the first and second photos (the ones with explanations in French) are from a series of postcards from Albania. I believe that I must have found them on ebay.

The picture of Hasan Riza Pasha was posted by an Albanian collector on albmilitary.com with the respective description.

The photos of Montenegrin troops and Albanian reservists were taken from Armies of the Balkan Wars 1912-1913 by Osprey Publishing.

[malioni91]

In the first picture, the cannon is a 155mm , Cannon L Mle 1877

I'm not sure about the second pic. I believe that the piece is a 6-cm-Kolonial- und Bergkanone Krupp Modell 1870.

Sources: First pic was taken from the same collection as the very first two pictures at the very beginning of this thread

[malioni91]

Erickson in Defeat in Detail page 311 says in late March 1913 that 40,000 Serbs and Montenegrins were besieging Iskorda.The Turkish garrison was around 12,500 men.This included 6 battalions of the 18th Infantry Divsion?

The death of Hasan Riza,pictured above,is also mentioned on page 306:

Perhaps the most serious breach of the cease-fire happened very close to the end of the first armistice on January 30 1913...Riza went out to personally conduct discussions with Albanian,Muslim and Catholic religious leaders.By the time he returned(6.45PM),it was past nightfall and extremely dark.On the way back to the Corps headquarters,the colonel and his aide had scarcely travelled 150 metres along the road when three men approached them.Shots rang out from the men,whose identity was unknown,and Hasan Riza fell,mortally wounded.He was taken back to a nearby mosque,where he died at 2am on January 31...Esat Pasa now took over as the Iskorda commander.

Erickson also footnotes page 315:

Hall in The Balkan Wars 1912-1913 London 2000,noted that Hasan Riza was assassinated,apparently by agents of Esat Pasa who aspired to his position.

Peter, there are different accounts of Hasan Riza's death, however it is sure that Esat Pasha was the one who ordered his assassination. The men that shot the general was called Osman Bali, and was one of Esat Pasha's men. Bali was killed by Albanian communists during WW2 (so almost 30 years from the events in Shkodra).

Below is the grave of Hasan Riza Pasha in Shkodra, the city which he defended to his last breath. The picture was taken by A.Lame and posted on albmilitary.com a couple of years ago.

[ltcolonel]

In the first picture is Serbian heavy cannon 12 cm M 97 Schneider.

[jwsleser]

Attached are a map and the Ottoman OB for this siege. The information is from the Turkish Official History Balkan Harbi Garp Ordusu Karadağ Cephesi III ncü cilt 3 ncü kisim.

DefenseIskodra1913A.jpg

The blue positions were prewar; the red were the defenses added after the outset of the war.

OBIskodra1913A.jpg

This is the Ottoman OB for the siege.

Jeff

[malioni91]

^Thanks Jeff! Really interesting maps!

First pic taken from Armies of the Balkan Wars 1912-1913 by Osprey.
Second pic scanned from Gazeta Shqiptare.

[patates]

I have question about m1909 tunics.Are thehir collars folded or straigth?(I don't know the right term)

[jwsleser]

patates

The collar on the M1909 was commonly refereed as a 'stand and fall' collar. The collar stood up a small distance along the neck, then folded over. This style of collar is taller than modern lapels, but not as high as a standing collar.

Jeff

[Peter H]

Thanks for the map Jeff.

It shows the Birdica position,said to be the scene of a lopsided resulting Turkish counterattack on the 9th Feb 1913.

According to Erickson page 307:

The Turks swept over them and pushed them completely back to their orginal positions.Serb casualties were significant.The Turks claimed to have killed 1400 Serbs and furthermore to have captured 428 men and three thousand rifles at a cost to themselves of 41 dead and 64 wounded.Although these claims may seem fanciful,such a lopsided claim of victory appears nowhere else in the thousands of pages of historical text concerning the Balkan Wars published by the Turkish General Staff.However Richard Hall,who noted 1800 Serb casualties,confirms these losses.Needless to say,the Turks held the field at the end of the day,and they attributed their smashing victory to the poor quality of the Serb reservists,who comprised the bulk of the regiments....

[ltcolonel]

On Brdica 9th Feb 1913 was Montenegrian army not Serbian army. First Serbian troops came near Skadar in march 1913.

[Peter H]

Well Erickson gives the Serbian troops at Birdica in early Feb 1913 as the 5th and 6th Regiments of the Drina Division.It appears the southern sector included Serbian elements initially tasked with sweeping to the Adriatic south of Shkorda.A formal Montenegrin request for Serbian assistance on the 13th Feb resulted in an additional 30,000 Serbs (with artillery) arriving in mid March.These forces entered all around the encircled position.

Supporting collaboration with the mentioned career of Markovic J. Petar,Chief of Staff of the Drina Division:
http://www.voa.mod.gov.rs/eng/Istorijat ... kovic.html

During the 1912-1913 wars: chief of staff of the Drina Division of the 2nd call-up. (he took part in the siege of Skadar, where the squad faced a heavy defeat ono Brdica).